The UK’s post-Brexit immigration system has been largely demolished due to drastic reforms set on Monday by the Kiel Star government.
A white paper outlining the Prime Minister’s plan to overhaul the country’s immigration system limits workplace visas to graduation roles only with narrow time-limited routes for low-skilling roles in the lacking sector.
Unless immigrants can prove to be a contribution to society, the UK’s path to reconciliation will be one of the longest developed countries. Higher fees and pay thresholds also make the system the most expensive.
“These new measures, combined with those introduced by the previous government earlier last year, will roll back most of the liberalization brought about by post-Brexit immigration policies,” said Madeleine Samaputo, director of the Immigration Observatory at Oxford University.
The priorities argue that the surge in net immigration seen since 2020, when it peaked above 900,000 in mid-2020, did not hamper the economy’s stagnation. If anything, the Minister said the ease of recruitment abroad was damaging and did not give him an incentive to hire and train in the UK.
“Growth in the UK has been too often dependent on short-term, immigration-driven increases in labor market size rather than sustained increases in productivity,” the whitepaper said.
The Home Office estimates that the changes will reduce the number of people arriving in the UK by about 100,000 each year, but the impact on net mobility is less clear.
Economists say this makes almost a difference in GDP’s per capita growth outlook. This is a better measure of living standards than overall GDP growth, the latter of which is important for the Ministry of Finance’s short-term financial calculations.
“It’s not a game changer in terms of GDP direction,” Sumption said. “What that (the long settlement route) is doing is bringing more revenue to the home office.”
According to Nick Rorason, immigration director at law firm Kingsley Naples, the combination of higher fees, higher salary thresholds and a potential 10-year wait for a settlement, if the employer pays for the full cost, the total cost of sponsoring a partner and two children with £67,000 skilled workers and two children.
Changes in migration to advanced graduates who pay more taxes and impose on state support could also boost finances a bit, according to Brian Bell, head of the government’s Immigration Advisory Committee.
Bell said it is not yet clear how the new system of visas in sectors affected by labor shortages will work, especially if there were no sectoral organizations leading the workforce strategy. However, he argued that employers are more likely to “change the structure of production” and that people outside the labour market (the minister’s key policy objectives) are more likely to provide jobs as they faced in stages from the visa for less skilled jobs.
However, there is a short-term shock to the sector that relies most on overseas labor, particularly caregivers facing immediate closure of visa routes, and the three-year wait for governments to develop policies on long-term funding for the sector.
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Care visa applications have already fallen sharply as workers are brought to the UK and as a result of more rigorous scrutiny by employers.
“We are pleased to announce that we are working hard to ensure that we are working hard to achieve this,” said Josh Hawker, Head of Business at Ablecare Homes in Bristol. Josh Hawker, who has seen changes in the employer’s national insurance and minimum wage, said:
“Increasing wages and conditions in the social care sector may be a good policy, but it’s hard to see that it’s not on the money,” said Jonathan Port, a professor at King’s College in London.
In the case of universities, the changes announced to the post-study visa were less dramatic than the sector feared, as international students can work in any job for 18 months after completing their course. However, there was a stab in the tail. Not only will universities need to do more to police compliance with immigration rules, but they could also face 6% collection of fee revenue from international students.
“The idea of taxation on international students would be very controversial. Taxation is considered a tax on the highly successful UK export sector,” said Nick Hillman, director of the Institute for Higher Education Policy.
Meanwhile, for political strategists and Labour lawmakers, the biggest concern was not about the economic impact of change, but was sent by his warning that Britain could become a “stranger’s island,” particularly with his suggestion that migration caused “immense damage” to the country.
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Robert Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said he considers Starme’s framing “absolutely miserable.”
“They chose to lead with the strongest possible “Nigel Farage is right, don’t vote for him” headline,” he said.
“We could add more costs to our business by making recruiting more difficult and more expensive. We also say that the UK reforms are right,” One Labor MP said. “Being a diet version won’t win the vote when the full fat option is available.”
